Development (TUDCN)

The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network (TUDCN) is an initiative of ITUC that brings together affiliated trade union organisations, the solidarity support organisations (SSO), the representatives of the ITUC regional organisations and the Global Union Federations (GUFs). The network’s objective is to bring the trade union perspective into the international development policy debates and improve the coordination and effectiveness of trade union development cooperation activities.

The work of the network focuses on advocacy and capacity building activities which include organizing conferences and seminars as well as issuing publications: a regular newsletter Trade Union Focus on Development and Development Papers series which include policy statements and research projects of TUDCN.

ITUC development cooperation strategy is based on the principle of the democratic ownership. The TUDCN firmly believes that people should be in charge of their development policies.

The TUDCN has been operating since 2007 with the financial support of the affiliated organisations and the European Commission.

The High Level Political Forum 2017 on Sustainable Development (HLPF) took place at United Nations headquarters in New York from 10-19 July 2017, under the overall theme of "Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world". A trade union delegation attended the event.

A trade union delegation attended the 3rd Africa-EU Intercontinental CSO Forum in Tunis, on 11-13 July 2017. This Forum was organised in the framework of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), and supported by the African Union’s Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (AU/CIDO) and the European Union (EU). The final declaration reflects many trade union priorities to advance decent work and social dialogue in the JAES.

Highlights Development (TUDCN)

While countries that embrace a social model recognise the benefits of social dialogue, the relevance of this form of governance has yet to be fully understood within sustainable development debates. As a step towards addressing this, this paper aims to provide an overview of the contribution of social dialogue to sustainable development and outlines the conditions required to maximise this contribution.

A TUDCN study by the Overseas Development Institute reviews the contribution of five donor countries to providing decent work in developing countries. Entitled How do donors support the Decent Work Agenda? - A review of five donors, this study assesses the various forms of support provided through Official Development Assistance by France, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Looking ahead, the study also includes recommendations on how to better track and evaluate these contributions in the future.

Development funding is increasingly being channelled through Development Finance Institutions. These national institutions are particularly solicited when using development aid money to free up further investment, known as leveraging. When used well, these tools have the potential to allow sectors of developing countries’ economies that wouldn’t otherwise attract investment to strengthen and expand. However, this joint TUDCN-CPDE research paper highlights a number of alarming shortfalls in how these institutions operate that can seriously undermine international development goals.

In the framework of its work-stream on the relevance of social dialogue for development, the TUDCN has undertaken three national case studies in Ghana, Indonesia and Uruguay. This publication, made possible by the support of the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness, shows that social dialogue makes an important contribution to some of the principles that are at the heart of the development effectiveness agenda.

multimedia Development (TUDCN)

Alex Nkosi is the author of a recent case study on the use of Official Development Aid (ODA) to promote Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Malawi. The study highlights issues with how PPPs operate in practice that can seriously undermine the original development aims of the investments. It contributed to the TUDCN’s latest report entitled The development effectiveness of supporting the private sector with ODA funds. We spoke to Mr Nkosi to find out more.